Matthew does not tell of the ascension of Jesus to heaven, but the encounter of the Risen One with the Eleven. His “being raised high” is told in the first reading, by the Acts of the Apostles, who nevertheless invite the disciples, then as of today, not to stare at the sky, but to await the Lord who will come “in the same way you saw him go to heaven”, that is, promising the gift of the Spirit, who will give the disciples the strength to be witnesses of Easter to the ends of the earth. Also in Matthew the Risen One sends the Eleven to make disciples “all peoples”. Ascension is a sign of the universal character that the lordship of the Risen One assumes, while nevertheless remaining the lordship of the servant, of the one who gave his life so that everyone may have life in him. “I have been given all power in heaven and on earth.” The universality of the mission is based on this communion between heaven and earth that Jesus’ Easter has achieved and now the Ascension reveals. Jesus ascends to heaven because the Father is there, in that heaven that touches, communicates, can be contemplated from every corner of the earth. It is not in a temple, in a people, in a land, in a tradition: it is everywhere and everyone is his child. The disciple must go to the ends of the world because there is no land, there is no person, there is no situation that is not a place of presence and communion with the Father, in Jesus, who remains with us forever and everywhere.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey